Some comment has been caused by the fact that while
Kent has diligently and religiously signposted (in preparation for the Festival of Britain) all that portion of the Pilgrims' Way lying within its borders, Surrey has declined to do anything of the kind, on the not very good ground that it would cost f500 and the better ground that it would entail exhaustive research. It would. And, what is more, it might end in the iconoclastic conclusion that the Pilgrims' Way is no more than legend. There is no higher authority on Surrey and its histhry than Mr. Eric Parker, the former editor of
the Field (and much else). Mr. Parker in 1907 wrote the well-known " Highways and Byways " volume on Surrey, following scrupu- lously therein the accepted tradition regarding the pilgrims' route from Southampton to Canterbury But events caused the tradition to be questioned and the evidence examined, with the result that Mr. Parker concluded that it was all tradition and no evidence, so that when he was asked sonic three years ago to undertake the volume on Surrey in the new County Series, he felt bound to make an unreserved recantation, refute tradition point by point and end his chapter with the words, "I now sadly abandon the whole invented story." Well, there it is. The Surrey County Council would be a bold body if in face of that it started signposting in the name of history a legendary path.
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